Imagine Dragons have a criminal past
Imagine Dragons know what it's like to be a struggling band and even have the records to prove it - criminal records that is.
There was a time when lead singer, Dan Reynolds, had to plead with a detention centre sheriff to get their bassist Ben McKee released from prison in time to play a gig.
It's hard to believe when you consider where they are now: Grammy-award-winners with over 24 million single sales worldwide and almost 4 million album sales.
McKee doesn't go into too many details on how he became incarcerated apart from the fact that he made "poor decisions"
"There was nudity, not in a creepy way but in the running around and climbing in a nude fashion, it was pretty rock `n roll," McKee told AAP.
The band are in Sydney as it's just been announced they will tour Australia later this year.
Their first album Night Visions was such a success with bombastic hits such as On Top Of The World, it might look like this band became an overnight success.
"I feel like the band blew up over night, which to the public it has but we've been a band for seven years and before those years we were playing tiny clubs, getting each other out of jail, being super poor, getting robbed ... when you go through all those things as a band and then when things blow up, you appreciate it even more,' Reynolds said.
In fact, they had made five EPs before they released their enormously successful album, Night Visions.
While Radioactive, a track from Night Visions, went on to win them a Grammy for Best Rock performance, it was one of those early EPs that got McKee out of jail in the nick of time.
"I actually bribed this sweet old woman who was the detention centre super sheriff ... I gave her a signed CD," Reynolds said.
Imagine Dragons were a relatively unknown band at the time heading off to support an Australian band.
"I got let out 15 minutes before downbeat of our show opening for Temper Trap. Our manager was actually learning how to play the songs on bass as Dan was trying to convince them to release me out of jail," McKee said.
While Reynolds admits to having a man-crush on Temper Trap's lead singer Dougy Mandagi, McKee reveals they actually have a lot to thank the Melbourne band for.
"Actually when we were doing that show when we were backstage we could hear them doing their vocal warm ups and hearing them doing vocal harmonies together inspired us to get our vocals a little more on point," McKee said.
Now they plan on keeping up their Australian connection with a return tour in support of their second album, Smoke + Mirrors.
Hopefully, they will manage to stay out of prison while they're here.
IMAGINE DRAGONS AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES:
September 2 - Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne
September 4 - Qantas Credit Union Arena, Sydney
September 5 - Riverstage Brisbane, QLD
September 8 - Vector Arena Auckland, NZ
September 10 - Horncastle Arena Christchurch, NZ
